Restaurant marketing
(WHAT IT IS)
Southern Exposure Media Group (SXMG) is an Atlanta marketing agency that works with restaurants across metro Atlanta and North Georgia. We handle social media, food photography and video, websites, Google Ads, SEO and email for restaurants in the city and well outside it, like a dry-aged steakhouse in Gainesville and a pizzeria in Hoschton.
In Atlanta itself we work with a butcher shop in Riverside, a Thai restaurant in Buckhead and food halls on the Upper Westside and downtown. Nick McElroy founded SXMG here in 2021. One team plans the work, shoots it, builds the website, runs the ads and sends the newsletter, so the menu, the photos and the booking button tell the same story everywhere.
(WHAT'S INCLUDED)
Restaurant marketing services
- 01.
Reels and carousels for Instagram and Facebook, built around the menu, the specials, the events and the people behind the food. We have run social media for Frazie's Meat & Market since September 2024, Chattahoochee Food Works since March 2025, Nan Thai Buckhead since October 2025 and CHR Steak since June 2026.
- 02.
Menu, cocktail, dining room, team and event photos, plus vertical reels and longer films for social media, the website, ads and press. Recent shoots include CHR Steak's raw bar, dry age room and private room, and Sliced Pizza's menu and storefront in October 2026. We also covered the supper club nights at Frazie's Meat & Market in 2024 and 2025.
- 03.
Website design and development
Custom restaurant websites with reservations, online ordering, private dining and events connected to the systems the restaurant already uses, plus a back office its team can run. We built CHR Steak's site in June and July 2026, Frazie's Meat & Market's new site in July 2026 and Nan Thai Buckhead's new site in August and September 2026, and Sliced Pizza's site went live in October 2026.
- 04.
When a restaurant leaves Wix or WordPress, we move its content to the new site and add permanent redirects so old links keep working. CHR Steak moved off Wix in 2026, and Frazie's Meat & Market and Chattahoochee Food Works moved off WordPress the same year.
- 05.
Google Search campaigns built around the reasons people come in, such as a meal out, the cuisines, the events and the name itself, with call and form tracking. We have run Google Ads for Chattahoochee Food Works since December 2025 and for CTR Food Works since July 2026.
- 06.
SEO, AEO and Google Business Profile
Pages that Google Search, Google Maps and AI answers can read: clear titles, structured data, an llms.txt file, guides that get straight to the answer, and Business Profile care. AEO, short for answer engine optimization, means writing and marking up pages so tools that answer questions, such as Google's AI Overviews, can find them and cite them. CHR Steak's site publishes guides on dry aging, private dinners and date night in downtown Gainesville, and Frazie's Meat & Market's Butcher Blog has added guides in 2026, planned from the site's own search data.
- 07.
Newsletters built and sent from the reservation or ordering system, so each issue leads straight to a booking or an order, plus menus, signs and magazine ads. CHR Steak and Nan Thai Buckhead send through OpenTable, and Frazie's Meat & Market sends through Toast. In 2026 we designed Nan Thai Buckhead's Mother's Day, World Cup and lunch menus.
We also supply press photos and promote events. In 2026 we put CHR Steak's ticketed songwriter nights and wine dinners on its website and promoted them.
(HOW WE WORK ON IT)
How we work with restaurants
- 01.
Start where you are
We begin with what the restaurant already has: its website, its Google listing, its reservation and ordering systems and its logins. If an owner does not know a login, we sort it out together on a call, and no restaurant has to start every service at once.
- 02.
Plan around the menu and the calendar
Shoots follow the season: new menus, patio openings, holidays, wine dinners and private dining.
- 03.
Make it on one board
Every reel, carousel and post goes through the same production board: concept, footage, edit, review, revisions, approval, then publishing. Clients can see what we are working on from the first concept to the approved piece.
- 04.
Connect it and measure it
Booking and ordering links go to the system the restaurant uses, and we track calls, forms and order clicks so owners can see what is working.
- 05.
Report back
We send owners performance reports on the work we do.
Across our content boards, the median time from the start of production to a finished piece is 6.3 days (1,454 pieces). For reels it is 7.1 days (1,040 reels). Source: Southern Exposure Media Group production records, September 2024 to November 2026.
(THE WORK)
Restaurant marketing examples in Atlanta and North Georgia
CHR Steak
Gainesville, Georgia
A dry-aged steakhouse on the downtown square. We built its new website in June and July 2026 to replace its Wix site, with OpenTable booking and events its team publishes, and we have handled its social media, photography, video and SEO since June 2026.
Frazie's Meat & Market
Riverside, Atlanta
A butcher shop, market and sandwich counter. Its new custom site, live since July 2026, sends orders, gift cards and catering to Toast and has a holiday orders page, a private chef page and a page for every event. We have run its social media since September 2024.
Nan Thai Buckhead
Buckhead, Atlanta
A Thai restaurant and cocktail bar we have worked with since September 2025. We built its new site in August and September 2026, with OpenTable reservations and ChowNow ordering, and we have handled its social media, photography and email since October 2025.
Sliced Pizza
Hoschton, Georgia
A pizzeria on City Square. We built its website, live since October 2026, with the full menu as text guests can filter by category and a catering page, then shot its menu and storefront and turned the photos into social carousels.
We also handle social media and photography for Southern Belle and Georgia Boy, Chef Joey Ward's two restaurants on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Poncey-Highland, and we send the newsletter they share.
(FOOD HALLS)
Food halls: many kitchens under one name
Food hall marketing means promoting many kitchens, a bar and a full calendar of events under one name. For Chattahoochee Food Works on Atlanta's Upper Westside, SXMG built a website with a page for each kitchen, an events calendar, a private events page with a Tripleseat inquiry form, and a dashboard the team uses to publish its own events. It went live in early October 2026, replacing a WordPress site. We have run its social media and photography since March 2025 and its Google Ads since December 2025.
CTR Food Works sits at 190 Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta. We have run its social media since March 2026 and its Google Ads since July 2026, and we have looked after and developed its website since August 2026.
(PLATFORMS)
Restaurant platforms we work in
- 01.
OpenTable
Reservations and private dining inquiries on the CHR Steak and Nan Thai Buckhead websites, and the newsletters both restaurants send. In 2026 we also promoted CHR Steak's ticketed OpenTable Experiences.
- 02.
Toast
Online ordering, gift cards and catering for Frazie's Meat & Market, linked from its website, and its Toast newsletters.
- 03.
ChowNow
Online ordering on the Nan Thai Buckhead website.
- 04.
Tripleseat
The private event inquiry form on the Chattahoochee Food Works website.
- 05.
Mailchimp
The newsletter Southern Belle and Georgia Boy share.
- 06.
Google Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics and Ads
Listings, search data, site tracking and Search campaigns.
- 07.
Instagram and Facebook
Where most of the reels and carousels we make are posted.
- 08.
Wix, WordPress and Squarespace
The platforms our restaurant clients left behind when their new sites went live.
(QUESTIONS)
Restaurant marketing questions
What does success look like for a restaurant client?
For Southern Exposure Media Group, success is growth a restaurant owner can see: more people finding the restaurant on Google, more tables filled, more calls and bookings, and a brand that looks as good online as it does in the dining room. That is how Nick McElroy, SXMG's founder, describes the goal. To make that growth visible, we set up tracking on the website. Frazie's Meat & Market's site tracks order, catering, newsletter, phone and directions clicks, and CHR Steak's site has had Google Analytics since July 2026.
Can we see the work before it goes out?
Yes. Clients can see what Southern Exposure Media Group is working on from the first concept to the approved piece. Every reel, carousel and post moves along one production board: concept, footage, edit, review, revisions and approval, and only then publishing. Many clients have access to their own board, so they can follow each piece. Across our boards, the median time from the start of production to a finished piece is 6.3 days.
How do you design a website for a restaurant?
We start with what guests come to do: read the menu, book a table, order, plan a private event or buy a gift card. Then Southern Exposure Media Group connects each of those to the system the restaurant already uses. CHR Steak's site hands reservations to OpenTable and carries OpenTable's private dining form. Frazie's Meat & Market's site sends orders, gift cards and catering to Toast. Nan Thai Buckhead's site pairs OpenTable reservations with ChowNow ordering. On Sliced Pizza's site, the whole menu sits on the page as text. Each site carries structured data that tells search engines what the business is and where to find it, and CHR Steak's team publishes its own events from a back office we built.
Does SEO work for restaurants?
Yes. People look for a place to eat on Google Search and Google Maps, so Southern Exposure Media Group builds search into the site itself, with clear titles, restaurant structured data, an llms.txt file and guides that answer real questions up front. CHR Steak's site publishes guides such as one on date night in downtown Gainesville. We also look after Google Business Profiles: in November 2026 we updated Chattahoochee Food Works' profile with holiday closures, new photos and a rewritten description.
Do Google Ads work for restaurants?
They can, when the campaigns match what people actually search for and the tracking is in place. Southern Exposure Media Group builds Google Search campaigns around the reasons people visit. For Chattahoochee Food Works, we built separate campaigns for the food hall itself, its range of cuisines, its events and its brand, which started in January 2026. For CTR Food Works, we launched dining, brand and events campaigns in July 2026, with tracking on the site from that month.
Is email marketing good for restaurants?
Yes, especially when the email comes from the system guests already use to book or order. Southern Exposure Media Group has built and sent CHR Steak's newsletters in OpenTable since July 2026 and Nan Thai Buckhead's since August 2026, and Frazie's Meat & Market's go out through Toast. That way each issue points straight to a reservation or an order. We also send the newsletter Southern Belle and Georgia Boy share, as we have since June 2025.
(RELATED SERVICES)
(FROM THE BLOG)
Restaurant marketing on our blog
Let's work together
Southern Exposure Media Group (SXMG) is a full-service creative agency in Atlanta, working with businesses of all kinds. Tell us what you want to grow.